Need some advice on a 920 build

[Khayman]

Hi there,

I've been looking at building the following 920 pc and would appreciate any feedback i can get on the following setup:

CPU - i7-920 OEM (which i will overclock, i've decided not to wait for the 930 since the only difference i can tell seems to be a slight increase in clock speed...) I'll be putting a TRUE 1366 heatsink with fan on it

MOBO - Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5, Intel X58, Sok 1366, PCI-E 2.0, DDR3 1066/1600/2000, SATA II, ATX

CASE & PSU - Antec 1200 Full Tower Case + Antec CP 850W Modular PSU

GPU - Gigabyte GeForce GTX 260 Super Overclock 896MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card

RAM - 6GB Corsair 1600MHz (basically best deal i can get when i buy it all, so advice here would be appreciated)

I'm looking to build a gaming pc that is reasonably future proof and wont have any issues with future upgrades like adding GPUs, etc.

cheers for the help and advice

 

[p55ibexpeak]

This is a board with better experience & warranty than the ones with GB. I think GB is releasing beta BIOSes to not be responsible for instability.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131614

GPU = red alert! Why get a last-gen mid ranger when you can get a high-end gpu? Unless you're waiting on Fermi to release & henceforth, dropping the prices of HD 5800s.

 

[Khayman]

I decided to go with Nvidia because i've been told there are support issues with the ATI cards so it seemed a safer bet. Plus i looked at this one to reach the decision
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-310-5970,2491-4.html

As far as choosing this specific 260 one - it's basically the nvidia card within my £150-160 price range, plus the benchmarks put that super OC 260 at slightly higher than a stock 275, and it can still be overclocked past that so it seemed to me a better bet than the 5770.
- should i be considering a 4890 instead?

5800s atm are selling for £220+ which is more than i want to spend at the moment

 

[p55ibexpeak]

FYI, I have the GTX 260 in my i5 rig, but it's just a placeholder until HD 5800s drop in prices in Q1/Q2.

I tend to go with ATI cards unless I know my games play better on nvidia cards. What games or kinds of games do you play?

 

[Khayman]

I'm quite an avid gamer so i'll be playing whole variety like:

Left4dead2, Modern Warfare 2, good old BF2, Supreme Commander, Divinity II: Ego Draconis, total war games, Dragon Age Origins, etc.

I just like the added performance from the super overclock 260, plus there's a disappointing lack of choice for HD4890 cards in the UK, which would be the ATI card in my current price range.

I am planning to update the GPU at the end of the year, so im not counting on it for too long

 

[p55ibexpeak]

Then the GTX 260 would be fine for a placeholder card. However, you might not be able to max out CODMW2 as this is the only graphic-intensive game on your list. SC is more quad-core intensive (more units, more AI), so is the newer TW game.